I'm one of the the many that held out hope at one time for a VS-3280 (and of course that ship sailed long ago). So, I was recently leaning towards updating my current setup with an Apollo Twin MK II interface & Faderport 16 control surface to go along with Logic Pro X for about $1500 bucks. But the prospective workflow just didn't FEEL right to me.

I then looked closer into the Presonus StudioLive 32 Series III. I always thought it was just a digital mixer, but after taking an in depth look it seemed to check off all the boxes that I was looking for. A modern all-in-one mixing console, interface and control surface that works seamlessly with a musician friendly DAW (Presonus Studio One 4.5) And you can stay in the box and record into an SD card at live shows (or wherever). Found myself up in the wee hours last night, and an article by Mix Magazine and a Youtube video by Chester Thompson (Frank Zappa, Weather Report, Genesis) finally won me over.

At about 2:00 am I found a new one for $1799 (and Studio One 4.5 is bundled with it for free). I hovered over that submit button on Paypal Credit for what seemed like an eternity. Then I went for it. I hope it'll be the last setup I ever need. Called Presonus and they said retailers are starting to discount them because of the 32S being introduced. But they said a firmware update will bring mine right up to speed with the S. I then saw another one for $1999 today, so there are indeed more out there in the wild at a similar price point.

I really think I'm going to be happy with this. It just seems like such a natural transition from the 2480 for me. I'm curious if anybody here also has one of these, and what your impressions might be. Thanks.

While I don't the Studio Live 32, my best friend does. In fact we worked on it last weekend in his studio. It's a stellar piece of equipment! Very easy to learn if you already have 2480 experience. The faders were a joy to work with and extremely smooth. The Buss setup it has is great as well. Recallable pre's, and very nice (basic) on board effects. Having said that, I can't comment much on the pre's as he's using external ones, but XMax has a good reputation.

The Studio 1 Pro (DAW) is really nice as well. I think I still like Reaper better, but that's probably because It's what I've been using.

If I didn't just spend 2 grand on 16 Clarett preamps, and another thousand on a computer, I would buy it in a heartbeat... I highly recommend it.

Thanks for sharing that information Powermac. It's encouraging to know that you've had hands on time with it and consider it a stellar piece. Knowing that my previous 2480 experience will significantly ease the learning curve is definitely a positive as well.

I'm really looking forward to riding faders, and making the mix part of the artistic process again.

It seems to have so many of the intangibles that I loved about the 2480, and fuses them with a faster and more intuitive workflow when dealing with plug-ins, editing, .wav files etc.And there's customer support to boot.

Good luck on the album release Gonzo. I've been told by a few different people that Studio One is designed with the musician and songwriter in mind - not just from an audio engineering perspective. Is that your take as well?

How long have you been using it, and what was the ramp up process like for you? Things that you like about it as well?

I've been drooling for one of these for a long time, but I'm not in a band anymore and I don't have the space for recording, so I guess I'm just drooling, lol. They have a couple of different boards with 32 in the name, does the one you're getting have 32 mic pres for that price? Or will you have to get one of their stage boxes and a cat5 cable to do 32 tracks simultaneously? Good luck and have fun with the new board.

Thanks for sharing that information Powermac. It's encouraging to know that you've had hands on time with it and consider it a stellar piece. Knowing that my previous 2480 experience will significantly ease the learning curve is definitely a positive as well.

I'm really looking forward to riding faders, and making the mix part of the artistic process again.

It seems to have so many of the intangibles that I loved about the 2480, and fuses them with a faster and more intuitive workflow when dealing with plug-ins, editing, .wav files etc.And there's customer support to boot.

Awesome.

You'll find it a big step above the 2480 as a console. Love my 2480, but the Presonus is killer.

I too am looking for a decent control surface. I've been looking at the 32 and 24 of this series.

Forgive me if I sound a bit dumb in this area, but looking at this and the 24 model, if they're meant to be an interface, where are the digital inputs?

I already own a Motu 828mk3 hybrid interface which has digital ins, which is a requirement for my setup. I also don't see any midi. What am I missing about this beauty? I really do want to get the feel of the faders and such, but it seems like a lot of gear to do...not much, in my case. But still, doesn't most anyone need midi and digital options? I was hoping maybe to get evey thing I need, all in one box. I have a motu midi express xt, 8 midi in, 9 out. I like all the pre amps and analog inputs, but to add this beast along with my other gear just seems like so many devices to do one job.I also looked at the faderport 16 but it seems more of a toy compared to this beauty.

Scratching my head on this one

HD

P.S. I probably would never find an instance to use this or the 24 in a live setting. It would strictly be for my home studio

Question for you Powermac. I'm first and foremost a musician and songwriter with decent production skills. I would never call myself an audio engineer, that's for sure.

I was on the 1680 for 3 years, and it still took me a couple years on the 2480 before I really felt comfortable with my workflow. Lots of calls to Roland US and plenty of time spent on this forum helped immensely.

Learning Studio One by itself won't be a big deal to me. However, it seems that the learning curve for the Studiolive 32 working in tandem with Studio One might be a bit steep. I keep reading that there aren't any tutorials or manuals that guide you in using them both simultaneously in DAW Mode. Even some accomplished sound guys seemed to be a bit frustrated with that aspect.

Has your friend found a good online source for just that? I know Presonus has a decent online forum, but it would be great to find something step by step for DAW Mode like the Roland manual had overall.

I'm not a technical wizard either HardDriver, so hopefully my answer will be semi-cogent. I'll be using this strictly for my project studio as well, and I too almost bought the Faderport before I went with this.

Even though a lot of guys are using this as their studio centerpiece, it was originally designed to be a digital mixing board with recording capabilities for live applications. DAW Mode is a powerful aspect of it though, and that's why people like me are buying it for the same reason you might be interested.

Unfortunately, I believe if you have ADAT, S/PDIF or MIDI components you want to use, you'd still have to incorporate your existing MOTU interface to accomplish that.

Hey C Jo, the CS18AI is just a control surface, isn't it? I didn't think you mixed in the computer. So wouldn't that have been kind of a bust for you?

How is it different from mixing with the 32 II model ??

Yes , I want to mix with the board == everything connected up like the 2480

CS18AI has the feature like the VS -- where you flip between the channels ( there by only needing a smaller based board ) I only see 16 faders with the VS 2480 but, have access to 48 -- with flip of button

Edited by C Jo Go (11/22/1905:01 PM)

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"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats .. ~●¿●~ Where is B flat ?

Question for you Powermac. I'm first and foremost a musician and songwriter with decent production skills. I would never call myself an audio engineer, that's for sure.

I was on the 1680 for 3 years, and it still took me a couple years on the 2480 before I really felt comfortable with my workflow. Lots of calls to Roland US and plenty of time spent on this forum helped immensely.

Learning Studio One by itself won't be a big deal to me. However, it seems that the learning curve for the Studiolive 32 working in tandem with Studio One might be a bit steep. I keep reading that there aren't any tutorials or manuals that guide you in using them both simultaneously in DAW Mode. Even some accomplished sound guys seemed to be a bit frustrated with that aspect.

Has your friend found a good online source for just that? I know Presonus has a decent online forum, but it would be great to find something step by step for DAW Mode like the Roland manual had overall.

Thanks.

No way it will take you two years to learn the 32 since you now have console experience. As far as operating it with the DAW it should be no issue either. In fact, I was getting after my friend because he was doing most of the work from his mouse and not using the 32 much. It's not much different than operating my setup with Reaper.

I didn't ask him about support with the console, but will. He's been paying Joe Gilder (see YouTube) to come down from Nashville to teach it to him. He's obviously loaded cause it aint cheap to hire Joe.

Awesome, C Jo. I thought you still did your mixing on the VS. Heck yeah, getcha one of the 32 channel boards hooked up through USB and then you could ditch the VS and your Quad Capture. I think the one tannen is getting is 38 in and 38 back through USB. I wish I wasn't broke, fat, sick, and old, lol. Well, I guess I'm used to being fat and broke, but the sick and old parts sure snuck up on me, tee hee. Good luck and have fun with whatever. Later.

Awesome, C Jo. I thought you still did your mixing on the VS. Heck yeah, getcha one of the 32 channel boards hooked up through USB and then you could ditch the VS and your Quad Capture. I think the one tannen is getting is 38 in and 38 back through USB. I wish I wasn't broke, fat, sick, and old, lol. Well, I guess I'm used to being fat and broke, but the sick and old parts sure snuck up on me, tee hee. Good luck and have fun with whatever. Later.

You up in Northern Indy ??

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"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats .. ~●¿●~ Where is B flat ?

Well, hey there, C Jo. What a small world. I thought I kinda smelled Hoosier in your posts from time to time. I was one of them Northwest High School rats. The paddy wagon used to pull up about 10 am on fridays and wait for the fun to begin. Not as bad as some places by far, though. No shootings that I can recall, but the potential was always present. I was just looking at the board that tannen is getting and it has a transport section with stop, play, record, and several other buttons. As far as locator buttons, I'm not sure, but with Reaper and all the other DAWs, there are markers along the top of the arrange window. So navigation is easy enough. It's a 38x38 USB interface, so one could bring the tracks in from the computer and process them inside the board, not just control the tracks and plug-ins in the box. It can do that, too, but I don't know how many tracks you could control in the box. Like different layers, of 32 tracks or whatever, I don't know. Geez, I was startin' to sound like a used mixer salesman, lol. Well, that's more than I've typed in a decade. Time for a nap. Later.

ONE AM MONDAY --- I am sure I could pay someone to set up a template on the STUDIOLIVE ... then I could extend the process if needed be . We do very little in REAPER -- just a few TDR Eq's/COMP plugs and render the two track mixdown ..that's it ..

"arrange window " markers -- would take some mousing & getting use to the screen .... the 2480 has those well marked buttons -- your eyes never have to look up at a screen ++ toy with a mouse...

Edited by C Jo Go (11/25/1911:54 PM)

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"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats .. ~●¿●~ Where is B flat ?

Well, hey there, C Jo. What a small world. I thought I kinda smelled Hoosier in your posts from time to time. I was one of them Northwest High School rats. The paddy wagon used to pull up about 10 am on fridays and wait for the fun to begin. Not as bad as some places by far, though.

Was pretty tame back in Beech Grove < 50/60's days > Cathedral was tough school = never got out of line with those Brothers .. I left BALL STATE about 73 -- been in California since ...

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"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats .. ~●¿●~ Where is B flat ?

So, I do all the painstaking research...get uber motivated, and purchase the StudioLive 32 that's sure to change my world right? I even get people talking on here about it too to affirm my wise choice. Well yeah, about that...

I re-evaluated and considered ease of workflow and minimal ramp up time as the two most important things. You know...creating music instead of reading manuals, calling tech support and eventually throwing a brick at my Mac.

Went with this setup instead and I think I'll actually be recording insteading of postulating:

Audient ID44 Faderport 16Studio One 4.5

Simple. Done and done. But in the future, if you know of any other alluring shiny toys I can conquer the world with, please let me know.

Aw, bummer, tannen. So, did you cancel the purchase, or try it and give up? I was looking forward to hearing how it was to work with. There's like a thousand videos on those mixers on their youtube channel, so I figured it would be a snap to figure it out. Oh, well, I should stop living vicariously through others, anyway, lol. And, hey, don't call yourself an idiot. You're being too hard on yourself. heh, heh...i said hard on...heh, heh. Good luck, have fun.

Hey Tannen Let me know how the faderport 16 is working out for you I'm tossing my think about that one.I have studio one 4.5 as well. Also what type computer system you're pushing it with.Comparingsons, you know.

So, I do all the painstaking research...get uber motivated, and purchase the StudioLive 32 that's sure to change my world right? I even get people talking on here about it too to affirm my wise choice. Well yeah, about that...I'm an idiot.

I re-evaluated and considered ease of workflow and minimal ramp up time as the two most important things. You know...creating music instead of reading manuals, calling tech support and eventually throwing a brick at my Mac.

Went with this setup instead and I think I'll actually be recording insteading of postulating:

Audient ID44 Faderport 16Studio One 4.5

Simple. Done and done. But in the future, if you know of any other alluring shiny toys I can conquer the world with, please let me know.

Exactly why I never left the VS system --been tempted so many times ... AND now they drop the StudioLive CS18AI --which resembled the ROland closest ...

_________________________
"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats .. ~●¿●~ Where is B flat ?

I keep reading that there aren't any tutorials or manuals that guide you in using them both simultaneously in DAW Mode. Even some accomplished sound guys seemed to be a bit frustrated with that aspect.

And they expect someone to pay few thousands $$$ - with no manuals ...

Edited by C Jo Go (11/27/1911:11 AM)

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"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats .. ~●¿●~ Where is B flat ?

Aw, bummer, tannen. So, did you cancel the purchase, or try it and give up? I was looking forward to hearing how it was to work with. There's like a thousand videos on those mixers on their youtube channel, so I figured it would be a snap to figure it out. Oh, well, I should stop living vicariously through others, anyway, lol. And, hey, don't call yourself an idiot. You're being too hard on yourself. heh, heh...i said hard on...heh, heh. Good luck, have fun.

Actually, I just returned it to sender this afternoon OneAmMonday. Just not into a long, drawn out learning process. Powermac's friend paid good money to a Studiolive III YouTube guru to drive down from Nashville just to teach it to him...so that gives you an idea about what the prospective learning curve might be.

Hey Tannen Let me know how the faderport 16 is working out for you I'm tossing my think about that one.I have studio one 4.5 as well. Also what type computer system you're pushing it with.Comparingsons, you know.

Sure thing HardDriver. It arrives on Monday and I'll be looking forward to it. I just downloaded Studio One 4.5 today with their Black Friday deal ($199), as I'm migrating away from Logic Pro. Currently using an iMac 2.7GHz Quad-Core i5. I'm going to upgrade from 8 to 16 gigs of ram here in a couple weeks as well.